Day: February 17, 2006

Jeremy Zawody provies a useful annotation of Tom Coates’s Future of Web Apps presentation. Jeremy writes that his version is “translated for Product Managers.” I’d have to argue that the translation is less important than two other benefits.

1. Pulling information from the data island that is PDF.
2. Shorter is better. The answer to Media-induced ADD… the new MADD.

Thanks.

The only amused quibble I would have is with calling out del.icio.us as a readable URLs. Yes, the paths after the domain itself are beautiful and hackable. But let’s all move over to delicious.com, shall we? Of course, at this point the URL with its own geek cred is part of the brand, really, just like the dropped vowl is for Flickr.

Note: I pay attention to these things because jealous of these URLs. CNET’s CMS has painful URLs, no doubt about it. Adding legible text to the paths didn’t help much, as they are still not hackable or guessable. I would love quantifiable evidence about why making a transition to new URLs would be worth the massive redirects and more… because I’ve been tempted to make this plunge for years, but the unknown cost-benefit makes it a pipe dream for now.

Just a quick rant: will United Airlines please hurry up and go out of business, and free up the air routes from San Francisco to someone hungrier?

Maybe I should be careful what I wish for, but I’m ready to pursue the unknown over the known… and for a relatively cautious person like myself, that speaks volumes about how painful the United experience has become.

My family’s flight was cancelled last night because United couldn’t get pilots for the plane at SFO, a significant hub in their system.

(At least, that is what was announced. If it was something else, shame on them for lying to customers, too.)

For mileage reasons, I have two more round-trip flights on United in the next five weeks, but at that point, my mileage will be zeroed out, and my waning loyalty will have no further grounding.

Would more entrepreneurs please read James Fallows’ Free Flight and attack this ripe market segment? Please? Maybe some of the VC cash overhang could be redirected? If Vinod Khosla is taking on energy, then the daunting infrastructure and regulatory concerns which probably dampen investment in aviation can be overcome, too.

I’d like to see an “aviation bubble,” even, so competition really shakes things up. It’s less than two years since I read the book. I know Cirrus and Eclipse are out there… other options which will actually be flying in the next two years?